About 350 school board members across the state have not completed the criminal background check that is part of their job requirements.

State officials are telling those who have not submitted the paperwork to resign. To ignore that warning is to risk being charged with a fourth-degree crime.

The driving force behind the new law puts it more bluntly. “If you don’t complete the background check, and you try to stick around, you risk going to jail. It’s as simple as that,” said Assemblyman Jerry Green (D-Union).

School board members had until Dec. 31 to complete the paperwork. They were reminded over the summer and again in early December of their responsibility to submit the criminal history review.

With the deadline passed, the state Department of Education intends to inform all ineligible board members of their status. The department will then release the names of the ineligible members — and the districts they serve.

Unique to New Jersey, the requirement is designed to hold school board members to the same standards that prevent criminals from becoming public school teachers.

It has been argued that the law is unduly punitive, preventing now upstanding citizens who made youthful mistakes from serving their communities. The time for those arguments was in 2010, when lawmakers were debating the law, and last year, when the Assembly and the Senate unanimously approved the requirement.

Now that it is the law, school board members must comply or resign. In some cases, the elected officials may have overlooked the paperwork or missed the notices from the state. Admittedly, that is not a reassuring sign from school board members who are entrusted with the direction of enormous budgets and the delivery of a quality education.

Still, mistakes and procrastination happen. And some school officials may have been confused about when to submit the criminal history review, suggests Frank Belluscio of the New Jersey School Boards Association.

School board members who have not complied, for whatever reason, should no longer be in any doubt that the state is serious in enforcing the new regulation.

However, we suggest the Department of Education allow a final grace period for submission of the information.

Dedicated public servants, especially those who earn no salary, are an invaluable asset to their communities. If theirs was a simple oversight, they should be allowed to make amends. And the Department of Education has a great many other matters that need attention.